Jackie Chan Speaks on MMA

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 4:53pm

Originally Posted by Elemental Fist

Considering he actually took up Judo and Boxing after his years at the Peking Opera school, it's a shame he never took up BJJ, it would've been pretty cool to see him mix his signature acrobatic moves with grappling.

You know this is how urban legends and Myth get started right? This is a gross exaggeration of what he did.

**Elemental Fist** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:04pm

Originally Posted by It is Fake

You know this is how urban legends and Myth get started right? This is a gross exaggeration of what he did.

Excuse me not following, gross exaggeration of what exactly?

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:09pm

I'm a huge and lifelong fan of Jackie. I will even see, and enjoy, the crap he puts out like the Spy Next Door. But I disagree with him strongly on this. Not that he doesn;t like MMA. That's fine. Not everyone will like it. But it really pisses me off when people moralize about True Martial Arts (tm) and loudly proclaim that MMA is not True Martial Arts (tm) because it doesn't fit their narrow (and often misinformed) view of what MA is supposed to be about.

His statment about MMA is equivalent to someone moralizing about his movies that, "they are just mindless violence."

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:11pm

Originally Posted by It is Fake

You know this is how urban legends and Myth get started right? This is a gross exaggeration of what he did.

The only training I've ever heard of him doing beyond the opera and stunt training is that he and Sammo trained Hapkido with Whang Inn Sik after working with him in one of Jackie's movies.

**Elemental Fist** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:20pm

Originally Posted by JudOWNED

The only training I've ever heard of him doing beyond the opera and stunt training is that he and Sammo trained Hapkido with Whang Inn Sik after working with him in one of Jackie's movies.

Well, he said in so many interviews including his Jackie Chan: My Story documentary, that after he left the Opera school he began to train in Northern style then a bit of Southern. He also mentioned that he also practiced karate and Judo (don't know for how long he did) and of course he has his occasional boxing workout.

Well, that's what I understood from his interviews.

**karma2343** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:27pm

Originally Posted by DunkelAnanas

^^^This times infinity. I can't stand a lot of the imagery of the UFC.

Regarding Mr. Chan's view of UFC: if the "fighting spirit" means not training for one of the most common situations to happen in a fight, than I do not care for fighting spirit. Or most of his recent movies.

Neither can I. When UFC became the sport of choice for the skinheads and tough guys in my area I avoided it like the plague. But then I saw a fight where a guy won by decision and the crowd boo'd because they didn't agree with it, and the fighter said something along the lines of "Yes, go ahead and boo. I know I didn't really deserve that victory" and it totally changed my perception about the sport.

Originally Posted by hairydynamicist

I would expect most people without any understanding of the sport to react the same way no matter what their age. And as a few folk have commented, stir in a chav-tastic brand image and you're really up against it.

This is very true. One time I was visiting a friend up at the university she was going to and one of her suite mate's boyfriend kept throwing stuff at me. I kept asking him to stop but he wouldn't, but I didn't want to hit him or anything because he was just playing around, even if it was getting on my nerves. Instead I got him in a leglock and applied a small, controlled amount of pressured. He yelled "ow!" a couple of times and the other girls
started yelling at me to let go as if I were strangling him. It was a very awkward silence after that.

But I didn't get anything thrown at me anymore.

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 5:50pm

Jackie Chan: My Story

I don't recall anything in there about Judo or boxing. I'll have to double check my AUTOGRAPHED COPY. :glasses2: Although, burden is really on you to provide proof.

**Elemental Fist** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 6:05pm

Originally Posted by JudOWNED

I don't recall anything in there about Judo or boxing. I'll have to double check my AUTOGRAPHED COPY. :glasses2: Although, burden is really on you to provide proof.

Here you go, he mentions the styles he practiced from 00:58 to 01:05

YouTube- "Jackie Chan: My Story" Documentary Part 2 of 8

**nightowl** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 6:07pm

A lot of actors train briefly in martial arts for movie roles. Matt Damon did Krav for the Borne movies, Denzel Washington trained with Dan Inosanto for the recent 'Book of Eli' movie (and actually does boxing in real life), and I wouldn't be too surprised if Jackie trained a bit of judo so he could whip out a tomoe-nage for one of his films. I wouldn't really consider that however a replacement for training Judo as a martial art.

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 1/21/2010 7:03pm

Originally Posted by Elemental Fist

Here you go, he mentions the styles he practiced from 00:58 to 01:05

YouTube- "Jackie Chan: My Story" Documentary Part 2 of 8

Thanks, good stuff! Though I have to concur with Nightowl that it sounds like he was talking more about training for movie roles rather than training in the styles as a martial art.

Quick correction as well. I wasn't paying attention and when you quoted My Story, I mistakenly thought of his autobio, I Am Jackie Chan. It is book that I have an autographed copy of. And it is also said book that, IIRC, talks of Hapkido as the only other art he really studied with any seriousness after his opera/stunt career.